Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic made a claim on a Nis television programme worth reading twice: if a new government comes to power in Serbia, it will force Serbs to attend concerts by Marko Perkovic Thompson.

"Remember my words. If the government changes, remember what I am telling you now, the future government in Serbia will force Serbs to go to Thompson's concerts and will tell us that this is a new patriotism and new European cooperation", Vucic said. In the same breath he mentioned the salute "Za dom spremni", claiming every subsequent administration would promote it as a patriotic duty.

The same man, a different occasion

Vucic has previously compared Thompson's concerts in Vukovar to Nazi symbolism and stated explicitly that "Za dom spremni" is the equivalent of "Sieg Heil". He has criticised the content of songs referencing Serbia, and warned of rising nationalism in parts of Europe, invoking Serbia's antifascist historical position.

All of it was said on the Sunday when a commemoration for a convicted war criminal was held in Belgrade, attended by a minister from his own government. Antifascism works beautifully as an argument as long as it is pointed at the neighbour.

The electoral maths behind the sentence

This is not an analysis of musical taste. This is a pre-election construction in which the opposition is attacked not for what it proposes, but for what it would hypothetically do - something it has neither said nor announced. The mechanism is familiar: if you cannot beat the opposition on its own ground, move the debate to ground where every answer it gives looks like an excuse.

In the Balkans this tool is used by more cabinets than would care to admit it. Instead of what we will do, vote against what they will do. The question every voter should ask is simple: how many concrete measures did I hear in that same statement?

And there is a practical consequence. Every sentence like this does Thompson himself a favour - it keeps him in the regional news, increases his weight and gives every side a reason to carry on with the same subject. The real winner of this statement is neither the government nor the opposition.